In recent years, in IC cards, mobile phones, etc., wireless communication such as near field communication (NFC) has begun to be used. A user can easily execute communication for an authentication process, an accounting process, etc., simply by performing an operation of holding the IC card or mobile phone over a reader/writer module of a host apparatus.
Recently, a novel close proximity wireless transfer technology, which enables communication at high speed, has begun to be developed. In this novel close proximity wireless transfer technology, not only authentication and accounting services can be performed between the devices, but also data files of text data, video data and audio data can be exchanged between the devices.
The communication range of close proximity wireless transfer is limited to a short range of, e.g. several centimeters. This short range can reduce the risk of data theft in data communication between two devices. Thus, in the close proximity wireless transfer, security of a certain level can be ensured without performing, between devices, special communication for pairing or inter-device authentication.
However, if data exchange between devices is unconditionally permitted by using, as a trigger, only a touch operation of bringing a certain device close to another device, it is possible that the data in the device, such as a computer, is stolen by a malicious third party. For example, if a malicious third party performs an operation of bringing a device, which is owned by the malicious third party, close to a computer of a certain user, it is possible that the data in the computer is stolen.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2007-18398 discloses such a control technique that in an automatic teller machine (ATM) having a general-purpose I/F for an operation by a maintenance worker, a device which is connected to the general-purpose I/F is registered in advance in the automatic teller machine (ATM), so that devices other than the registered device cannot be used.
In the technique of KOKAI Publication No. 2007-18398, however, the automatic teller machine cannot communicate at all with devices which are not registered as the device that is to be connected.
In the close proximity wireless transfer, it is possible that various kinds of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, PDAs and other countless mobile devices, become objects of communication. Therefore, as a security function that is applied to the close proximity wireless transfer, a scheme is needed to permit, where necessary, a connection to a device, which is not pre-registered as a device that is the object of connection, thereby not to lose the usability of the close proximity wireless transfer.